


Childhood

by Lakritzwolf



Series: Flufftober 2019 [8]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Battle of Five Armies Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 08:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20991761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lakritzwolf/pseuds/Lakritzwolf
Summary: an AU where Erebor never fell to the dragon.





	Childhood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [islandkate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/islandkate/gifts), [LittleSwallow (Hobbity)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbity/gifts), [Khim_Azaghal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khim_Azaghal/gifts).

> This was inspired by this absolutely adorable art by [floridecuts](https://floridecuts.tumblr.com/)
> 
>   


Dis was kneading her hands, in a mixture of anger and desperation. “I can’t find them anywhere, Thorin!”

Thorin dragged a hand down his face and barely managed to not mess up his elaborately braided beard. “Not today!”

“I know.” Dis took a deep breath. “Today, of all days, when the Iron Hills and the Blue Mountains arrive for Durin’s Day, those two just vanish and are nowhere to be found! What were they thinking?”

“They were thinking nothing, dearest sister,” Frerin said, leaning into the doorway with a smirk. “They’re dwarflings, barely old enough for a braid in their hair.”

“Oh don’t I know that!” Dis threw up her hands. “But I told them a dozen times how important tonight is, and how important it is to make a good impression for future relations! Especially Fili, future King under the Mountain!”

“Dis.” Frerin pushed himself out of the doorframe. “Fili is still better at hearth speech than at westron, and Kili has been out of diapers for less than two years. Give the boys a few years of childhood before you bend and weld them into shape.”

Dis heaved a heavy sigh and shook her head. “You don’t have to remind me of the age of my own children. That’s exactly why I told them to stay put!”

“Well, there’s nothing for it,” Thorin said heavily. “We have three hours. Send every guard and every servant out to scour the halls. We need to find them.”

Meanwhile, unseen by any dwarf, be it guard or servant or member of the royal family, two little dwarflings had, hand in hand, made their way past the royal armoury and the kitchen. 

Little Kili was scared in those dark hallways towards the storage halls, only lit by a few torches here and there, but Fili firmly took his little brother’s hand and told him he would protect him. 

“Why are we here?” Kili whispered, or rather, whined in a whisper. “I don’t like it here.”

“We need to hide from Amad, and Uncle Thorin,” Fili whispered. “They said a lot of dwarves from other mountains come today for relationships. And I heard Uncle Balin once how he talked with Amad when they thought I was sleeping.”

He pushed open a door, and they found themselves in a room with several shelves and cupboards, filled with sheets and servants’ clothes. 

“And I am not going to marry some dwarf lady from the Iron Mountain or the Blue Hills. Not in a hundred thousand million years!”

“Why not?” Kili asked around the thumb in his mouth.”

“Because then I have to kiss her,” Fili said and pulled a face, “and kissing is yucky.”

“Ew,” Kili confirmed, still around the thumb. 

“And!” Fili lifted one finger. “I don’t want to marry any dwarf lady anywhere, because I don’t like her. I will never like anyone as best as I like you!”

Kili pulled his thumb out with a plop. “So are you getting married with me?” he lisped

Fili’s face lit up with a brilliant grin. “That’s it! That’s the best! You’re the best, baby brother!”

“’m not a baby anymore!” Kili pouted, arms akimbo. 

“No, of course not!” Fili hurried to say. “You are my naddadith, my little brother, and I am your nadad, your older brother, and I am not going to marry a stupid dwarf princess! I will marry you, then we can always be together!”

Kili grinned as brightly as was possible, and Fili pulled him into a fierce hug.

“So, now we have to hide,” Fili whispered, and put a finger against his lips. “So they can’t find us, so I can’t get married.”

Kili nodded eagerly, copying the gesture of his finger on his lips. Then the two tip-toed across the room towards a stack of large, white sheets. Fili took two of them, and spread one out on the floor, and took the other and put one end on the stack, and after some consideration, took a third sheet, rolled that up, and used that to hold the second sheet in place. The two dwarflings crawled into that tiny makeshift tent, and huddled together on the floor.

“If we wait long enough the other dwarves will be gone,” Fili whispered into Kili’s hair as he cuddled his little brother close. “And then I won’t have to marry.”

Kili nodded and slipped his thumb back into his mouth. 

* * *

The dwarves of the royal household, guards, servants, and members of the royal family, had spent two hours already looking for their princes. 

In the end it was a kitchen maid who found them as she was fetching sheets for the banquet tables, asleep in their little tent behind the table cloths. She ran and alerted the King and his sister, and their uncle Frerin didn’t want to miss this for the world. 

Curled around each other the two were fast asleep. 

“Oh my heart,” Dis whispered, looking at the two who even in their sleep wouldn’t let go of each other. Then she adjusted her skirts to lower herself down next to her sleeping sons.

“Fili,” she said gently. “Kili. Wake up.”

She brushed a strand of hair from Kili’s face, and how he would ever be able to have it braided properly, unruly, untameable mess that it was, she would never know. Fili still had his braids in place at least, even if his clothes were wrinkled as he sleepily sat up. Kili hummed, put his thumb back into his mouth, and curled up tighter.

“Amad?” Fili muttered sleepily.

“Givashel,” Dis said softly, smoothing his hair back. “You gave us a scare. What were you thinking?”

Fili looked at her, and then he frowned, and crossed his arms. “I am not doing any relationships with anyone in the Blue Hills or Iron Mountains! I don’t want to marry a dwarf princess! I want to marry Kee so we can always be together!”

Three grown dwarves, one of them King under the Mountain, stared down at the tiny dwarflings, and Fili looked up at them in as much childish defiance as he could muster, which was a lot. 

“Oh little prince,” Dis said softly. “You are not going to marry anyone for a very long time.”

“’M going to marry Kee!”

“We can talk about that later,” Thorin said after dragging a hand down his chin. “For now, we have to make the dwarves from the Iron Hills and the Blue Mountains feel welcome in our halls. You can do that, Prince Fili, can’t you? There will be no talk about marrying anyone, you have my word.”

“In that case,” Fili said, in a perfect imitation of Thorin’s stern Voice of the King, got up, and straightened himself up to his full height of two and a half feet, “lead the way, my King.”

Frerin couldn’t suppress a little snort, and Thorin gave him a glare, not from King to Prince but from older to younger brother, and still grinning, Frerin bent down to pick up Kili.

“I’m hungry,” Fili said, looking up to his mother who was holding his hand on their way up towards the higher levels.

“I’m sorry givashel,” Dis said. “But we don’t have any time left until we have to be at the gates.”

“Psst,” Frerin whispered, and slipped a hand into his pocket, adjusting Kili with his other. Then he produced an apple, and held that out to Fili as sneakily as he could.

Fili grabbed with a huge grin and bit into the apple with gusto, then offered it to his little brother. And Dis just about managed to wipe the apple juice off their sons’ chins before the first delegation passed the gates.


End file.
